Paul Pimsleur

Pashto, Comprehensive: Learn to Speak and Understand Pashto with Pimsleur Language Programs Paul Pimsleur 30 Lessons +reading edition

About Pashto

• Pashto is an Iranian language of the Indo-European family spoken by over 17 million people, primarily in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
• This course teaches the Northern dialect as spoken in Kabul (Afghanistan), which will be understood through all Pashto-speaking regions. 
• Pashto is one of the two official languages of Afghanistan (Dari is the other) and the native tongue of approximately 50 percent of the population there. 
• Although, not an official language in Pakistan, it is spoken by approximately 13% of the population.
• Pashto uses a modified version of the Arabic alphabet, and is read right to left.

Pashto, Comprehensive

• 
  In the first 10 lessons, you?ll cover the basics: saying hello, asking for or giving information, scheduling a meal or a meeting, asking for or giving basic directions, and much more.  You?ll be able to handle minimum courtesy requirements, understand much of what you hear, and be understood at a beginning level, but with near-native pronunciation skills.
  
• 
  In the next 10 lessons, you?ll build on what you?ve learned. Expand your menu, increase your scheduling abilities from general to specific, start to deal with currency and exchanging money, refine your conversations and add over a hundred new vocabulary items.  You?ll understand more of what you hear, and be able to participate with speech that is smoother and more confident.
  
• 
  In the final 10 lessons of Phase 1, you?ll be speaking and understanding at an intermediate level. In this phase, more directions are given in the target language, which moves your learning to a whole new plane.  Lessons include shopping, visiting friends, going to a restaurant, plans for the evening, car trips, and talking about family. You?ll be able to speak comfortably about things that happened in the past and make plans for the future.
  

Reading Lessons are included at the end of Unit 30 to provide you with an introduction to reading Pashto, which uses the modified Arabic alphabet. These lessons, which total about one hour, are designed to teach you to sound out words with correct pronunciation and accent. A Reading Booklet to be used with the audio lessons is also included in PDF format.